Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), who finished third in Andre-Petrieu's velodrome, was satisfied with a career-best result, and better positioned than any other Roubaix rider not wearing the faux denim of Alpecin Deceuninck, to leave the fast and demanding race of the year leaving the race.

The Lidl-Trek racer crossed the Roubaix finish line three minutes behind repeater Mathieu Van der Pol. At the end of the race, he went head-to-head with last spring's podium finisher, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Desseuninck).

But while Pedersen spent most of the effort holding off Van der Poel, Philipsen was sitting on his wheels in the chase and had more than enough speed to complete a second consecutive one-two for the team.

After the race, Pedersen was happy to be on the podium, even if the result dropped him two places lower than he had dreamed of in "Hell in the North." [To be honest, I'm really happy. Mathieu was on another level today, and the way he raced was really impressive," Pedersen said at the post-race press conference. For me, it's hard to beat Jasper in a normal sprint, so when you beat him in a sprint in a race like today, magic has to happen. So I'm happy."

"There are no excuses today. I have no excuses today, I was at 100%," he concluded, referring to his crash last week in Dwars door Hlaanderen, "I was beaten by a much better rider."

Pedersen entered the race as the favorite behind the duo of Alpecin Deceuninck, and while he was without Jasper Stuyven and Alex Kirsch, who were involved in the Dwars crash, he was joined by Jonathan Millan, Matthias Vacek, and Tim Deklerk. led a talented Lidl Trek lineup.

Milan's participation in the race was sadly brief, leaving the race shortly after being involved in a group crash in the opening 40 km. Vacek, however, became a valuable assistant to Pedersen, working with the lead group after Pedersen's puncture in Allenberg.

Pedersen said it would have helped if Milan had been there early in the race.

Pedersen said of Milan's crash early in the race, "I think it would have been a lot different if Milan had been there. So when he crashed early in the race, it was bad for us and annoying. We can't change that. I haven't talked to him yet, but I hope he's okay."

"But in the chase, we were all basically flat out because we wanted to catch [van der Pol] again," Pedersen added.

"When he was getting faster and faster, we were kind of racing second from the back. We also wanted to make choices within the group and get smaller and smaller.

"Everyone was giving it their all and maybe he would get a flat tire or something.

As Van der Pol popped out of the three-star sector of the Orkies, 60 km from the finish, Pedersen raced with Philipsen, Nils Pollitt (UAE Team Emirates), and Grupama-FDJ's Laurens Pitti and Stefan Kühn.

The latter was to be the first to win a race in the UAE.

The latter pair dropped out before the finish, with Pitti crashing from the bunch and Kühn also falling on the final approach to Roubaix.

With a slimmed down bunch, Pedersen had his best chance ever to make the podium, facing the weak sprinter Pollitt.

"I gave it my all in the final," Pedersen said. 'In the sector after Carrefour de l'Arbre, Philipsen fell and Kun fell. Since then, Jasper wanted to pull it off."

"At that moment I also knew that Jasper was a tough guy and he also had a few kilometers on the wheels that we were pulling. So I was calm in the sprint for third place." I knew Nils was at his limit, but I was at mine too." I had enough faith in my sprint to at least beat Nils."

On Sunday morning, 172 people left Compiègne with dreams of winning Paris-Roubaix. Mats Pedersen beat 169 of them. For more on how to add Mathieu Van der Poel to that list, see ...... More later.

"I tried to do better today, but [Van der Poel] was impressive and I couldn't keep up. So I still don't know how to beat him in Monument."

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